firedoglake Archive Site

Bob "Could've Been Worse" Roberts

Bowers:

The Bush administration was elected by the Supreme Court, and now it is trying to elect a member of its campaign team to the Supreme Court in order to deflect attention away from ethics violations by the head of its campaign team, Karl Rove. This is partisan hackery at its best. The Bush administration has decided to treat the Supreme Court as an ambassadorship.

Jeff Toobin, via Digby:

The president's first two nominations to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia curcuit --- generally regarded as the stepping-stone to the Supreme Court --- went to Miguel Estrada and John G Roberts Jr., who had played important behind-the scenes roles in the Florida litigation.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council:

The president is a man of his word. He promised to nominate someone along the lines of a Scalia or a Thomas, and that is exactly what he has done.

Jo Fish, Democratic Veteran:

Look for Justice French Fry to rule in cases where Veterans coming back from Iraq who try and make claims against the government or VA for inadequate care or other matters to be summarily rebuffed. Roberts is a company man, for the company that offers the most. And right now, that's his Federalist Society pals.

Elizabeth Cavendish, TPM Cafe:

President Bush’s choice of John Roberts for Sandra Day O’Connor’s seat left me feeling a little sick and more than a little concerned about the fate of women’s reproductive rights.  A little sick because Justice O’Connor was and is a pathbreaking woman in the law – not someone who always marched to the beat of the leading women’s organizations, but a woman who, in the crunch, saved the central core of the right to choose, and in other opinions advanced the cause of women’s equality.  By contrast, John Roberts has argued in a brief not directly concerning legal abortion that Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided and has argued elsewhere that Roe is not grounded in the Constitution.   

George from I'm Not One To Blog But:

On NPR this morning a spokesnut for Operation Rescue called him a great choice. That same story mentioned that Roberts' wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, is a lawyer involved with the anti-abortion group Feminists for Life. (I guess the test-polling for the group name Test Tubes for Jesus didn't go over too big.)

Echidne:

Well, the wingnuts must dance happily tonight. They got their way and the number of women in the Supreme Court dropped by fifty percent.

Sam Rosenfeld:

Brit Hume of FOX News captured the moment well last night when, turning from congressional correspondent Brian Wilson to White House reporter Carl Cameron, he chuckled with surprise at Bush's decision to name a white male -- "just like all of us." They all got a nice laugh out of that.

Cheers to all the male "liberal" (*cough* *choke*) bloggers I've been reading this morning who say fighting Roberts is not worth it, let's save our ammo for battles that "really matter."

Please do clue us gals in on exactly what the definition of "really matters" is. We'll be powdering our noses in the little girl's room in the meantime.

posted by Jane Hamsher @ 7/20/2005 11:55:00 AM